Skirmish over child hunters

The New South Wales Game Council wants to allow children as young as 12 to hunt in national parks with bows and arrows, supervised by a licensed adult. The council says children are already allowed to hunt in state forests without incident, but union representatives say park staff are worried, and the Greens say no one wants an armed child in their workplace.

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TIM PALMER: In New South Wales, national parks staff are up in arms about a proposal by the state's Game Council to allow children as young as 12 to hunt with bows and arrows.

The Game Council says all children would be supervised by a licensed adult and that for some families, hunting is a normal part of childhood. The council says children are already allowed to hunt in state forests without incident.

But the Greens say park rangers are no different from any other workers they don't want an armed child in their workplace.

Sarah Dingle reports.

SARAH DINGLE: For some families, like New South Wales Game Council chairman John Mumford, hunting is an important part of growing up.

JOHN MUMFORD: It's about teaching kids reliance about love of the outdoors and respect for the animals that they're hunting.

SARAH DINGLE: The Game Council wants children as young as 12 to be allowed to obtain licences to hunt with their parents in the state's national parks from next month. Under their proposal, the children would be allowed to use bows and arrows and guns to kill feral animals, as part of a pest control program.

JOHN MUMFORD: There is absolutely no different to private property throughout NSW where if the parents have permission to hunt on the property the kids can go and hunt with them.

And what people need to understand is that a junior has to pass exactly the same firearms test that an adult does. They cannot hunt on their own unsupervised they have to be in the direct supervision of an adult that means the adults got to be right next to them.

PAUL NOWACK: Yeah they might be supervised by their parents but that's not what we're talking about, who's to say their parents can hit a target?

SARAH DINGLE: Paul Nowack is the union representative for field staff in national parks, who currently run the pest control programs. He says there's no scientific proof that recreational shooting can eliminate feral pests. And family hunting teams should only be allowed into national parks under the strict supervision of field staff, within a national parks plan.

PAUL NOWACK: What the Game Council's suggesting is no supervision, no competency testing, bows and arrows, black powdered guns - this has absolutely nothing to do with feral control and certainly has nothing to do with safety, has nothing to do with the humane destruction of animals. This is a bad proposal and it's got to be opposed.

SARAH DINGLE: The Game Council says that children as young as 12 are already allowed to hunt in state forests, without incident.

JOHN MUMFORD: And you need to remember a lot of the national parks have been declared especially the ones in western NSW have got visitor usage rates of less than 100 people a year now if there's less than 100 people in that park for the course of the entire year, why do out people need to be directly supervised every time they go onto that national park?

SARAH DINGLE: I suppose because one accident would be one accident too many wouldn't it?

PAUL NOWACK: It would be but we've not had any kind of issues with accidents on state forests at this point in time.

DAVID SHOEBRDIGE: Well the ranger and other workers in the national parks have very valid safety concerns. No one else would be satisfied with having armed children roaming about their workplaces.

SARAH DINGLE: State Greens MP David Shoebridge says the proposal has nothing to do with pest control.

DAVID SHOEBRDIGE: There's a reason why the Game Council is so keen on having children exposed to hunting. It's because they want to build a generational change and a generational acceptance of gun culture and hunting as a legitimate sport.

SARAH DINGLE: The New South Wales Government is still assessing the risks of the proposal.